Samsung Expects Another Record Quarter: $7.3 Billion Profit, Fuelled By Its Galaxy Smartphones

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Samsung is reporting a record quarterly profit of $7.3 billion in earnings guidance ahead of its full Q3 report. Reuters notes the figure is nearly double the amount of profit the Korean electronics giant made in Q3 2011, bolstered by strong sales of its Galaxy range of smartphones and high end TVs.

Samsung also continues to be a key component provider for Apple but, with DRAM chip prices declining, its mobile division is doing the heavy lifting — accounting for around two-thirds of its total profit in Q3, according to the Reuters report.

The news agency notes that most analysts expect Samsung’s run of four record quarters to come to an end in Q4 when Samsung ramps up marketing costs to combat rival smartphones such as Apple’s iPhone 5 in the battle for holiday sales. Another factor expected to eat into Samsung’s profits is that record profits will trigger higher performance-related payouts to some staff. The company is expecting record profit of 28 trillion won ($25 billion) this year.

Samsung, which has a market cap of around $183 billion, expects profits at its mobile division to have more than doubled in Q3 — to around 5 trillion won — as smartphone shipments exceed 58 million, including up to 20 million unit sales of its latest flagship smartphone, the Galaxy S III. Operating profit is estimated to have jumped 91 percent to 8.1 trillion won from the year ago period — a jump which Reuters notes beats an average forecast of 7.6 trillion won in its survey of 16 analysts. Q3 revenue is estimated at 52 trillion won, in line with forecasts.

Samsung will report audited results for its Q3 financial quarter on October 26.